Snakes on a Plane!

Well, actually it was the playground, and really it wasn't "snakes", it was just one snake.... But it still scared the heck out of me! Today has been the first warm day all week and the first day I could take my class to the playground outside. We walked out to the playground and all my little kiddos ran in and started playing. I happened to glance at something about 5 feet from me laying on the ground in the mulch. In a flash, I thought, "Crap, that's a snake!" and then I thought of my nutty two years olds playing about 5 feet away and I tried to think of how to get it as far away from them as I could. I started walking toward it and it slithered (yuck!) through the fence and decided to position himself right in front of the gate that lets us OUT of the playground!! Now I decide to do the most calm and rational (me? rational?? ha ha) thing I can think of.... I start throwing every pine cone, rock, large piece of mulch and all the kids play balls at the snake!! He is jumping and snapping at every thing that came his way, but still won't move! So now we have a completely ticked off snake and a preschool teacher about to loose her mind!! Good combo, huh?? I finally start to calm down and call the 4's teacher Caron on her cell phone and explain to her the predicament. She decides to call the pastor of the church and tell him to come take care of the snake.... He comes outside carrying the largest shovel I have ever seen and then proceeds to tell us that he is petrified of snakes!! I explain to him that he has testosterone and doesn't shave his legs so that makes him the "snake charmer" for today! He raises the shovel and believe it or not, the snake jumped off the ground trying to bite the shovel!! I'm now freaking out and the pastor is about to wet his pants and the kids have finally noticed the snake and are all lined up at the fence saying, "What's Pastor Bruce doing with the shovel??" Long story short.... he finally manages to pin it down, chop it in half and come to the decision that it was more than likely a rattlesnake!! A rattlesnake, are you serious??? All I know is that I am glad I have a long weekend to get my blood pressure back to normal!! So....how was your day??